The present invention relates generally to the mounting of a forend/handguard to small arms weapons.
The standard mounting arrangement of the handguard/forend for the M-16 or AR-15 rifles or comparable small arms weapons secures the hanguard/forend to the upper receiver and barrel in a manner in which the gun barrel is concentric with the forend/handguard. This forend standard assembly protects the hands of the shooter and provides mounting sites for accessories.
Typical existing arrangements for affixing a forend/handguard to the upper receiver of an AR-15 or M-16 replace or are integrated with the barrel mounting hardware which is referred to as the barrel nut. The standard installation of both the barrel and the forend/handguard utilize a separate fixture requiring the alignment of the specific mounting mechanism features by over-torqueing the barrel nut, commonly described as “timing” the barrel nut. In certain circumstances, this is less than ideal since over-torqueing is insufficient to properly align the locking elements. It has been proposed to file or to shim the front face of the upper receiver to properly “time” all the mechanical locking elements.
There are alternative forend/handguard mounting systems which do not require “timing” the barrel nut relying instead upon other independent means of attachment. However, the alternatives often are prone to misalignment.
There exists, therefore, a need to provide a novel system that overcomes the above-noted and other drawbacks of the existing systems.